Multifunctional Nanomaterials for Aerospace Applications: Overview

Multifunctional materials can offer innovative and diversified design schemes for future aerospace vehicles and structures for NASA missions. Recent studies of nanotube-polymer nanocomposites indicate that these materials have the potential to provide a combination of structural integrity and multifunctional capabilities including sensing, actuating, health monitoring, radiation shielding, thermal management, thermal protection, and energy harvesting. For example, small loadings of nano-inclusions such as carbon nanotubes, boron nitride nanotubes, or nanometals into a polymer matrix can produce a sensor/actuator material that will respond to strain, stress, pressure, temperature, and electric/magnetic fields. These multifunctional nanomaterials also exhibit exotic electromagnetic characteristics (metamaterials) when formulated with chiral polymers and plasmonic nanoparticles. This presentation will overview how to synthesize multifunctional nanocomposites, highlight how to tailor their physical properties to meet the requirements of specific demands, and discuss their potential for future NASA missions. In addition, a history and overview of the NASA Langley Research Center and Advanced Materials and Processing Branch will be presented.